MOSINEE - Soua Yang studied engineering technology and worked for Motorola Inc. in Rhode Island before he seized a rather different opportunity in central Wisconsin in 1997.

Yang now owns Mekong Fresh Meat Inc., a Mosinee-based business that provides specialty meats and butchering to a largely Hmong clientele. His business doesn't overlap much with his previous studies at a New England technical institute. But his parents raised pigs and chickens in Laos when he was a child.

Mekong Fresh Meat is one of the oldest Hmong-owned businesses in the region. It started as a custom butchery and has expanded. It still employs workers who are recent immigrants or have limited English-language skills.

Daily Herald Media is profiling MeKong Fresh Meat as part of a series featuring Hmong entrepreneurs in central Wisconsin. In a nod to established and emerging businesses in the Wausau area, the Hmong Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce recently announced that it is working to open the organization's first satellite office in Wausau.

Mekong Fresh Meat has found a unique niche to fill as a central Wisconsin employer and a national supplier of traditional Hmong foods.

Hmong chamber opening a Wausau office

Mekong launched in 1993 to capitalize on the large Hmong population in Wausau. "We had a hard time there getting the food, meat, that we always had in Laos," Yang said.

He moved to central Wisconsin from Rhode Island in 1997 and took over for his brother, who'd been running the business. It's something of a family company, but Yang's not sure if his kids will get involved once they complete their education.

The company's namesake, the Mekong River, runs through Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The first Hmong family moved to Wausau nearly 40 years ago as refugees of the Vietnam War. Hmong soldiers aided the U.S. military and then faced persecution for it.

Now Wausau is home to second and third generations of Hmong families. And as those kids return to school in the fall and families hold more get-togethers, Mekong sees a boost in business, Yang said.

"I think Hmong families go and purchase these products on a regular basis," said Peter Yang, executive director of the Hmong American Center in Wausau. Indeed, those products sell well among the Hmong shoppers at Schofield Oriental Market, said its owner, Jouapao Vang.

Mekong's meats are made with traditional Hmong recipes, Soua Yang said, with onions, ginger and hot peppers. Employees process 3,500 chickens a week and around 120 pigs. They turn out about 10,000 pounds of sausage a week.

The company launched with eight employees as a custom butcher shop and now employs 30. About 10 percent to 20 percent of MeKong's business today comes from direct customer orders to butcher chickens, ducks, pheasants, turkey and rabbits.

"We figured, that's not enough for us," Soua Yang said. And so the company added sausages and smoked meats. "Right now, we just need to create more products."

He sees the company's growth as an investment not just for himself and his family, but also for the Hmong community. Hmong and Hispanic people make up some of the 30-member team at MeKong Fresh Meat. Soua Yang has made an effort to hire people with little experience, coming from low-income backgrounds or with limited English proficiency.

"Now they've got something to put on their resume," he said.

Crews worked in rubber boots and smocks, breaking down large yellow onions and pork shoulder for sausage in chilly, sterile rooms on a Monday last month. On Tuesday, they stuffed the sausages. The meats go out across the country, with the largest share headed to California, Soua Yang said. Other shipments go out to Georgia and Oklahoma. And plenty stay in central Wisconsin.

Schofield Oriental Market has carried MeKong products since the market opened about 20 years ago. Those products are popular year-round among the store's Hmong clients, Vang said.

Having Mekong Fresh Meat so close to home means Vang has a good rapport with that vendor and the products are fresher, Vang said.